Esther Kaplan

With God on Their Side
George W. Bush and the Christian Right
The New Press (paper), November 2005

“A riveting account of the radical right's assault on science and family planning...A frightening and necessary read."
"Kaplan's book is a piece of high-grade journalism."
"[A] well-written, fast-paced, and engaging book."
“Kaplan's exposé is welcome -- and alarming."
“Scrupulously researched and documented, and enlivened by Kaplan's trenchant reportage (she has beared many Christian lions in their dens), this journalistic masterpiece makes clear that the U.S. government today is largely in the hands of theocrats who loathe debate, hold reason in contempt, and are explicitly engaged in trying to transform a constitutional democracy into a 'Christian Republic,' where every citizen and institution will observer 'Biblical law.' Or else."
“[Kaplan] articulates in painstaking detail exactly how and why we were hoodwinked, by drawing out the intimate connections between Christian right leadership and Bush Administration policy, pointing out the key role that right-wing evangelical media has played as an under-the-mainstream-radar publicity machine for Bush's sectarian agenda."
“As Esther Kaplan demonstrates in With God on Their Side, [Bush has] doled out millions to far-right Christian groups, systematically crushed secular left and nonright mainstream organizations from Head Start to the Audubon Society, and replaced policy and scientific experts with comically ignorant yet politically cunning fanatic provocateurs."
“Not until I read Esther Kaplan's With God on Their Side did I realize in how many profound (and silly) ways Bush has pandered to Christian fundamentalists."
“I have never read anything as truly frightening as Esther Kaplan's expose of the George W. Bush White House, With God on Their Side....Kaplan's research is thorough, and her presentation is both vivid and fast-paced, which makes for an interesting, albeit alarming, read."
“Kaplan makes a compelling case that conservative Christians are the predominant ideological voice in politics today....Maybe the great American experiment in secular democracy is coming to an end."
“You should--you must--read this 'enlightening' book detailing the exclusionary, middle age, fundamentalist, evangelical, pre-enlightenment base of the Bush Administration....It is fact-based, straightforward, and will scare the bejesus out of you."
“This book shows what happens when we allow anti-intellectualism, paranoia, and reactionary thinking to dominate our democracy. With God on Our Side is call to arms to battle those forces who want to return America to the dark ages.”
“Esther Kaplan’s brilliant investigative reporting captures the untold story of the Bush administration’s deep embedding of far-right Christian fundamentalists in the White House. With God on Their Side provides frightening detail on the depth of power wielded by openly bigoted evangelical extremists, and the real impacts they have had on policies from abortion rights to medical research to the basic separation of church and state. Classic muckraking at its best.”
“In this masterly exposé, Esther Kaplan shows how the Bush administration has pandered to the Christian right—showering extremists with appointments and funding, promoting biased “science,” and distorting foreign policy. Read it and vote!”

For a review copy, contact Natanya Mitchell at nmitchell@thenewpress.com.

Selected Articles

Labor's Growing Pains, The Nation, June 26, 2008: SEIU, the nation's largest union, battles the California Nurses and dissidents in its own ranks

Workers Memorial Day, The Nation, April 30, 2008: how the Bush administration has gutted OSHA and cost workers' lives

The Culture War Descends on Columbia, The Nation, October 26, 2007: the Ivy League is ground zero for David Horowitz's "Islamofascism Awareness Week"

At War with Desire, Women's Review of Books, May/June 2007: a review of Tanya Erzen's Straight to Jesus, on the ex-gay movement

Liar, Liar: The New Propaganda War Against Unions, in New Labor Forum, Winter 2007: on a new corporate campaign targeting the labor movement

Fairy Tale Failure, American Prospect, July 5, 2006: Uganda, once a showcase for abstinence ideology, has become its victim (if you're not an AmProspect subscriber, click here for the full text)

Posts from the barricades: January 2006 March for Life in the Village Voice and the Nation; labor activists and gay Republicans at the September 2004 Republican National Convention in the Nation; January 2003 anti-war march in the Village Voice; and the October 2002 anti-war march in the Village Voice.

"The Christian Right and the Jewish Left," Jewish Currents, July/August, 2005

"Just Say Não," The Nation, May 30, 2005: Brazil defies Bush administration moralizing

"Lessons from the Christian Right," an essay in What We Do Now, edited by Dennis Loy Johnson and Valerie Merians (Melville House, December 2004): what progressives can learn from how the Christian right built power

"The Bush AIDS Machine," The Nation, December 2, 2004: what four more years means for AIDS

"American Jihad Against Gay Marriage," originally published as "Onward Christian Soldiers," The Nation, July 5, 2004: the movement against gay marriage

"The Jewish Divide on Israel," The Nation, June 24, 2004: American Jews mobilize for peace

"Political Science," Poz, January 2004: the Christian right’s assault on science

"Globalize the Intifada," an essay in Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, edited by Tony Kushner and Alisa Solomon (Grove, October 2003): a wave of activism opposing the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza

"A Hundred Peace Movements Bloom," The Nation, January 6, 2003: the birth of the antiwar movement

"Dangerous Council," Poz, November 2002: social conservatives shape Bush AIDS policy

"This City Is Ours," an essay in From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization, edited by Benjamin Shepard and Ronald Hayduk (Verso, August 2002): social change organizing in New York City during the Giuliani years

"Keepers of the Flame," The Village Voice, January 29, 2002: the new anarchism

"The Philadelphia Story," Poz, November 2001: AIDS activism emerges from Philadelphia’s poorest communities